


Corporate Secrets

by Dangerously_Demonic



Series: The Guide to Murder [2]
Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types, Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Setting the stage, oh shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 03:58:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14370417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangerously_Demonic/pseuds/Dangerously_Demonic
Summary: A decade has passed since InGen closed the books to one of their darker projects in 2008. It was deemed a failure in 2003 with the doctor who spearheaded it unable to provide sufficient proof of being successful, yet the company still tried to clean up the mess he made. Now, with the proof that the project had been successful, the project is reopened. This time, they don't intend to fail.





	1. Rediscovery

Brenden Mayer had been the head of InGen’s Project department for the past five years. Most of it related to Jurassic World and the different dinosaurs there. However, filed away in the basement were dusty old boxes with the more…Black Ops projects. The sort of things that would cause the death of the company and long, long prison sentences should the general public learn about them. To even get this position, Brenden had needed to sign countless NDAs. It left him with the feeling that the position was for life. Whether it was his life or the company’s life, he wasn’t sure.

Most of his work involved being the line of communication between the heads of the company and the various different pockets of labs. Sometimes the heads of company wanted something new worked on, sometimes the labs had an idea that they wanted to try and needed permission. Currently, the focus of the department was Jurassic World since it was the major cash cow of the company. At least until a curt looking man in a crisply pressed suit stepped into his office.

“We’re reviving an old project, Mr. Mayer.” While he spoke slowly and deliberately, his voice had a tone that demanded a person’s full attention. There was no offer of a name and the held out hand was ignored.

Frankly, Brenden had no idea who the hell this guy was, but the expression of the man suggested that it’d be wise to listen. So, he gave a slight nod and brought up the project database on his computer, “Sure. Which one?”

“I doubt it’ll be in the database. It’s one of the more…Questionable projects. The RH project was headed by a former employee by the name of Dr. James Kurt. As you’re aware, we have a deal with Google’s satellites for ownership of any images of Isla Sorna, as well as for them purposely uploading low quality images of the island.” The man had walked to the window as he spoke, as if Brenden was someone insignificant.

“I don’t think I’ve heard of that project, but I am aware of the agreement between InGen and Google. Did the satellites take a picture of something interesting?”

The man turned with a cold smile, “Interesting is a minor way of putting it. In the late 90s to early 2000s, InGen had a small interest in warfare, which only increased after the events of September 11th. Dr. Kurt worked on Isla Sorna to create dinosaur hybrids, he claimed to have created a virus which would alter already living subjects. Superhumans, essentially. He also claimed to have been successful…But the company had limited proof and a lot of dead soldiers as an end result. Expensive, you realize. Because of the cost, we finally closed the project, officially, in 2008.”

Initially, Brenden was following along with the topic just fine until the man mentioned ‘superhumans’. That alone broke so many different rules when it came to scientific ethics. While he knew that InGen had done some questionable things…Human experimentation was a bit…Much. Still, he hadn’t been hired or paid to listen to his morals. So, he simply nodded in agreement, “Very expensive losses and bad for the bottom line.”

“Very much so. We had confirmation of one somewhat successful hybrid. However, it wasn’t capable of what Dr. Kurt had promised, which was something with enhanced senses, strength, and speed. We wanted to offer a soldier who could sense when he was walking into an enemy ambush, but also move around heavily populated cities without an issue. Instead, we were presented with a half human, half dinosaur _freak_. There was, supposedly, a second successful hybrid according to Dr. Kurt’s files, but we had no proof of its existence…Until a month ago.”

Brenden kept his face carefully neutral at all of this, “So, you’re wanting me to pull the needed files from storage and…?”

The man dropped a folder onto Brenden’s desk. “Organize a retrieval team and have the subject transported to Jurassic World for evaluation.”

This made Brenden raise an eyebrow as he pulled the folder over to him but didn’t open it just yet. “The park, sir? Are you sure that’s wise? Why not one of the mainland labs?”

“We have a very capable lab on Isla Nublar led by our top geneticist, Dr. Wu. I’ve also received word of a holding pen that can be used to contain the subject long enough for evaluation. We need genetic samples. I trust that you’ll handle this competently.” Without giving Brenden a chance to respond, the nameless man turned and left the office.

Brenden stared at his door after it closed for a long moment. “Taking it to the park is a fucking stupid idea.”

He sighed and opened the folder where he was greeted with high quality images of what he assumed was Isla Sorna. They were all taken within about ten minutes of each other, judging from the time stamps on the corner of the pictures. Quickly, he organized the photos and laid them out on his desk in order to get a low-tech time-lapse.

The images were of an open field at the edge of a forest. Towards the edge was a…Person. An adult, from the looks of things. The person moved into the field and…Were they fucking changing into a dinosaur? Brenden plucked up one of the later pictures and scrutinized it. The person _was_ turning into a dinosaur. Holy shit. How was that even possible? He grabbed the last picture which showed a dark brown, green headed dinosaur stalking after a herd of dinosaurs. According to the picture, half an inch was approximately 10 feet. With a bit of rough measuring, that would mean the hybrid was roughly twenty feet long. So, a human had managed to change into a big ass, apparently carnivorous, dinosaur.

“Jesus Christ.”

He leaned back in his chair and cupped his hands over his mouth and nose. Just…Holy shit. While he was aware that InGen had been involved in some questionable things, this was just insane. Sighing, he got up and left his office to go to the basement storage. He had a bit of a search in front of him. Assuming it had been organized correctly, he had two things to go off: RH and 2008.

It took Brenden an hour and a half to find the right box. Not only had it not be correctly filed, but it had been buried under a stack of completely unrelated boxes. He wasn’t sure if this had been on purpose or accidental. Still, he carried the heavy box back up to his office and started digging through it. While the entire thing was ethically and morally fucked, he couldn’t help but have a grim fascination.

Evidently, ‘RH’ stood for ‘Raptor Hybrid’. Original and simple enough since Dr. Kurt was apparently fiddling with raptor DNA. The pre-human attempts had been on rats using a modified chicken pox virus and had been met with a 30% success rate…On adult animals. When it had been used on juvenile rats, the success had jumped to nearly 80%. Already, Brenden didn’t like where this was going.

The good doctor had kept the same delivery method for human attempts, but had used adults for the first five tries. All of them had been homeless, so it was unlikely that anyone would file a missing person report. This likely worked out to the favor of InGen since all five had died. Three of them from extremely high fever and while RH-4 and RH-5 had started to mutate, the changes had proven to be incompatible with living. Naturally, the files also included pictures…Much to Brenden’s distaste.

RH-6 through RH-10 had been older teens, runaways according to the notes. Initial survival was mixed but they mutated further. RH-10 had been the only one to survive mutating into a jumble of human and raptor parts, but apparently had severe organ damage to the point of being ‘euthanized’.

Brenden had needed to take a break from reading the files when he reached RH-8. She’d been pregnant at the time and Dr. Kurt had been interested in finding out how the virus would affect a fetus. They both died from the modified virus with the fetus having changed into a blend of human and raptor. He couldn’t help but be disgusted at the obvious intrigue Dr. Kurt expressed in his notes at the idea of potentially breeding the hybrids.

Hybrids 11-20 met similar fates, but the survivability had been increasing. Hours lengthened to days and weeks. But at the same time, Brenden was seeing a disturbing trend: the subjects were getting younger and younger. The first one that not only survived the change and wasn’t killed had been a 13-year-old named ‘Michael’ who Dr. Kurt had dubbed RH-23. It was then noted that he had turned RH-23 loose on Sorna with a crude tracking chip to see if he could survive the island. Periodically, the file had been updated with RH-23’s progress and continued survival. However, the updates ended on 12/20/2001 and simply noted for the reader to go to the ‘RH-34’ file.

RH-24 through RH-33 were far more successful than RH-23, according to Dr. Kurt. Each one progressed further in their mutation with RH-30 through RH-33 actually changing into raptors. However, he noted that they were unable to change back and seemed to have mental stability issues. Either they went insane and began self-mutilated to the point of being euthanized or they went completely feral.

The file of RH-34 was by far the largest, but it was also the last. With a heavy frown, Brenden opened up the folder. By this point, he was used to the pictures of unconscious subjects, but this one wasn’t even a teen. Sighing, he started reading through the notes since he suspected that this RH-34 was the target in the pictures.

_12/20/2001  
Joey, 11, parents plane crashed on Sorna the prior night. Administered 10mL of v. 3.17.9 of RH mutagenic via IV in left hand dorsal arch vein. Redid the virus to deliver a hybrid strain of Utahraptor, saltwater crocodile, and golden eagle. I believe the frog DNA in the velociraptor DNA I’ve been using has been causing the bulk of the issue. While I acknowledge Wu’s design of the velociraptors as superb, it doesn’t work well with humans. Rodent tests with the new strain were highly successful with survival time of over a week before I euthanized them._

_Unfortunately, I misjudged the craftiness of RH-34 and he was able to escape with the help of RH-23. While unforeseen, it’ll be interesting to see if RH-34 will survive the viral change and if he does, how the two hybrids will interact._

_1/10/2002  
I’m not entirely sure if RH-34 changed as the others did since I’ve only seen him as a human, but it appears that him and RH-23 are working together as an impromptu pack. 23 appears to do most of the hunting while 34 hangs back and watches. It might be a case of 23 teaching him how to hunt. Either way, he’s survived close to a month and doesn’t seem to be exhibiting any of the neurosis issues of prior subjects._

_3/27/2002  
He can change! I knew this last batch of virus would be successful. The biggest issue now is going to be to capture the two of them. I’ve sent word to the Research department at InGen for them to organize a retrieval team. While it would likely be best for both to be captured, I’m not opposed to 23 being euthanized due to being a failure._

The rest of the entries were remarking about 23 and 34’s ability at evading the groups sent to capture them, along with notations about the consistent failure of the groups. To Brenden, this didn’t bode well. If the two were that effective at evasion so quickly, they likely only got better over time. Sighing, he flipped the page and was greeted by different pictures of Joey at varying ages…As well as pictures of a raptor which he assumed was also Joey.

Most of the pictures were at a distance and showed a lanky teen who, more often than not, tended to be nude. The final human picture was a screen grab from a video of Joey’s face taken in early 2008. It showed a young man in his late teens to early twenties with shaggy, dark brown hair and a scruffy looking beard.

Brenden guessed that the person taking the video was on the ground and likely dying, judging from the splatters of blood on Joey’s face. At a glance, it just looked like an angry human, but then he focused on the vividly green, reptilian eyes. No, that was very much an angry predator. He supposed that if he’d been hunted so long that he’d be pretty pissed, too.

Personally, he found the raptor pictures to be more interesting. The first one was of a lanky, dark brown with lighter brown mottling raptor. Another image about 5 years later showed that the light brown mottling was fading and there was the start of green striping, much like tiger stripes. The final image was taken around the same time as the last human picture. It showed that the light brown mottling was completely gone and had been replaced by the green striping. An additional change was the start of a green blush on the raptor’s head. However, while it had gotten obviously taller, it was still lanky. This was consistent with the dinosaur seen on the satellite images.

By this point in time, it was long since time for Brenden to go home. Still, he felt that it was important to get a good idea of what he was dealing with. After all, he was going to be the one that had to write the briefing report and put everything together for a team. He certainly wanted some of Jurassic World’s Asset Containment Units since they were used to dealing with dinosaurs and dangerous situations. Maybe some hired mercs just to act as dumb muscle.

A week later, he had the sealed plans delivered to the mystery man who turned out to be Eli Carlson, head of Research and Development. He had suggested a large team of 35 soldiers, with 21 of them from Jurassic World’s ACU team; the other 14 could be hired mercs. In addition, he made the recommendation of the main ACU team being given more information than the merc team, since the merc team existed only to lure out RH-34. Then, he gave the final suggestion of the ACU team being situated in the trees; it would keep them out of the reach of most of the wildlife on Sorna and allow them a good shot at sedating the subject.

Brenden wasn’t entire sure if his suggestions were implemented or simply thrown out. He had done his job and honestly just hoped to forget everything he had read.


	2. Hunting Party

The bad thing about taking jobs for corporations was the paperwork. Rowan sourly looked at the pile of papers he had already signed and then looked back at the pile he still had to sign. However, the sheer amount of money that he was being offered was well worth the hassle of bleeding the pen dry of ink. It helped that the amount received changed with the number of survivors: the fewer survivors, the more money they each got. Normally, he wasn’t one who liked working with groups, but a starting amount of 6 figures was very, very enticing. On the other hand, it meant that he’d need to watch his back. He wouldn’t put it past people to try and kill him to up the amount of money they got. After all, it’s what he’d do.

Honestly, Rowan found it a bit funny. After getting out of the military, he’d bounced around with civilian life but found it pretty boring. InGen had actually approached him in the past with the offer of a job as part of their in-house security team that they’d been putting together for Jurassic World. He’d tried out for it since it seemed like a pretty sweet gig but ended up being dismissed after telling the head honcho of security to fuck off. The guy had stomped on every single nerve he’d had. He didn’t remember the guy’s name and frankly, didn’t care enough to learn it.

So, he swanned off and did his own thing for a while until InGen popped up with this little thing. Not that Rowan knew what ‘this thing’ was. All he knew was that it involved dinosaurs, recovering something, and ‘Isla Sorna’. Whatever. He signed the last bit of paperwork and slid the stack over to the suit standing in front of him.

“Excellent. The briefing is on Thursday at 10am followed by deployment to the island. Please arrive fifteen minutes early in order to get your briefing packet.”

Immediately, Rowan found himself annoyed at the formalness, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t have his money yet and he wasn’t about to do anything to jeopardize his potentially fat paycheck. So, he allowed the receptionist to escort him to the lobby where he left to head back to his hotel room to wait.

When Thursday rolled around, he showed up fifteen minutes early, as instructed. There, he was handed a sealed folder and ushered into a room with about thirteen other mercs. He didn’t really socialize with others in his profession so while one or two seemed familiar, he wasn’t able to put a name to a face. So, rather than trying to socialize like some were doing, he just took a seat and eyed the folder. Was he supposed to open it now, or wait till the briefing began?

A few moments later, a woman in a business suit walked to the front of the room and started setting up the computer. Rowan couldn’t help but roll his eyes at some of the comments he heard from behind him. Cretins, most of them. You’d think with how much money was on the line that they could keep their metaphorical dicks in their pants and focus on the job at hand. Sighing, he rubbed his eyes with a hand and then bumped his cowboy hat up a bit.

After a few more minutes, the powerpoint presentation started and the woman began talking about the various legalities concerning the assignment. It basically boiled down that it was a high-risk mission, likely his death, fucktons of corporate secrets, and of course, his favorite part: massive dollar signs. At this point, they were instructed to open the folder they had been given.

The first part of the briefing was a general overview of Isla Sorna. This included terrain, potential weather conditions, a rough map of where everything was, and information on the wildlife. Fucking dinosaurs, man. Apparently, they never thought to carpet bomb the island and had instead turned it into a protected nature reserve. At this point, the woman stressed that the wildlife was going to be one of the major threats.

“So what’s the other threats? Fire breathing dragons?”

Rowan rolled his eyes at the quip from someone to his left. There was always a wise ass in every group. Still, it was a good question: what other things were there to be concerned about? Dinosaurs were a pretty big threat all on their own, especially with the pictures they’d been shown. The idea that there was something potentially _worse_ wasn’t good.

“Your target.” She clicked a button which brought up a grainy, somewhat blurred image of a dark-haired male in his late teens or early twenties. The most startling thing was the green, reptilian eyes he possessed.

At first, Rowan thought this was an elaborate joke, but with how much money was on the line, it was unlikely. Looking down to his folder, he flipped through it to find the matching picture. What the hell kind of bullshit had InGen cooked up in their labs?

“This is RH-34, your target. It has come to the attention of the company that in the early 2000s, a geneticist formerly employed by the company went rogue. He began working on highly unethical projects which involved combining human and dinosaur DNA using InGen assets. Your job is to retrieve the resulting hybrid. Alive.”

Rowan exhaled and wondered what the fuck he just got himself into. This was way, way more than he had wanted to ever know. It stunk of shit that ended up with people going missing or suddenly getting a bullet in the head. Still…It explained the massive chunk of money that was being offered for this particular mission. He wasn’t a man who shied away from a challenge and was someone who tended to have a good attitude about things, but this caused an uncharacteristic tightness of anxiety in his chest.

“There’s another catch. Information suggests that RH-34 is capable of shapeshifting, as fantastical as it sounds.” She clicked the button again, showing several different pictures of differently colored dinosaurs. Rowan could only stare at the presentation, blandly. Fuckin’, what?

“These images are all taken several years apart, suggesting maturation of the target. Meaning we don’t have an accurate idea of how big he is. This last image,” she indicated one that showed a dark brown dinosaur with green striping and the start of a green blush on its head, “Was the last image taken that we have. It’s around the same time as the first picture you were shown.”

“How old are these pictures?” Rowan finally spoke up. The quality was shit and there wasn’t a single date stamp. He was getting the feeling that while InGen wanted this handled, they were only willing to give out the barest of information. Likely, to cover their asses as much as possible. The mission already was probably a massive liability for the company.

“2008. There is some slightly newer satellite imagery of the target in a few slides.”

This made him roll his eyes. Great. So they were being sent to Hell Island with basically useless intel. Just fucking great. It was making a lot of sense on why they were being offered so much money. Rowan rubbed his eyes again and wondered if it was too late to walk out. Probably was. No doubt, if he walked out now, he’d probably wake up to find some masked intruder standing at the end of his bed, holding a silenced pistol with a laser sight pointed at his forehead.

“It can be assumed that your target is very hostile and will retaliate with deadly force. Casualties should be expected.” The woman spoke about their potential doom casually, as if she was talking about the weather. She clicked to the next slide, “These are the most recent images we have. Taken two months ago via satellite.”

The slide played a short movie that had been comprised of still images. It showed an open field butted up to a forest and a human making their way out of the forest, steadily changing into a dinosaur who started stalking after a herd of dinosaurs. Evidently, that was the proof of the shapeshifting. As far as Rowan could be concerned, it could have been shitty CGI.

“There’s a final thing. RH-34 might not be the only one. The reports kept by the doctor indicate that there were several other living subjects. However, the one of concern is RH-23 who is known to be around RH-34, according to his records. Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures of him. We only know that he’s non-human in appearance, likely a mix of human and dinosaur. If he’s encountered, you may attempt capture. However, his survival isn’t a concern, consequently, there’s no bonus should he be retrieved. Remember: RH-34 is your target.”

This was turning into a massive clusterfuck. Just when he thought that it had hit rock bottom, it got worse. The rest of the briefing involved team assignments and what they were supposed to be doing upon landing on the island. This mostly just amounted to setting up a base camp and securing a perimeter, along with making sure no dinosaurs got aboard the ferry.

From there, they were shipped off to a private jet, hauled down to Costa Rico, where they boarded a private ferry, and headed off to Isla Sorna. During the trip, none of these really bothered trying to be friendly with each other, especially the ‘Asset Containment Unit’ guys. Most of them seemed to be pricks. The boss of the ACU group, Steve Terrence, in particular.

Rowan and he had butted heads more than a few times during the trip to the island and it left Rowan in a pretty bad mood when they landed on the shore. Though, some of that could have been from the heat and humidity. Still, he hadn’t appreciated the insinuation that he was somehow worth less just because he wasn’t officially employed by InGen

The first two hours was spent moving gear and setting up the base camp. Once that was done, the groups split up. The ACU group took a team of mercs with them and headed west. Rowan and the six others in his group were told to head north. Honestly, he wasn’t a fan of how big the other group was and how small his was. It just seemed…Fishy.

It took a surprisingly short amount of time for them to run across their first dinosaur. The creature had been eating…Something, a smaller dinosaur maybe, and when it stood up, brilliantly colored frills on either side of its head flared out. The sight of the creature seemed to startle a few people, which confused Rowan since they’d been told that there would be dinosaurs. Naturally, Rollins decided to shoot it in all of his lacking wisdom. The sound of the rifle echoed loudly around them and brought the noisy jungle around them to a halt.

“Fucking idiot!” Rowan hissed, “You’re going to attract everything with teeth to us.”

Someone else echoed his words and a third person shoved Rollins to the front of the group. Since he had likely alerted everything on the island to their presence, he could be the first one to get eaten. Rollins wasn’t too happy about this but remained at the front of the group for a while. However, he soon got tired of it and voiced his anger loudly.

“Fuck this bullshit. I’m going back to camp.” He turned and started shoving his way through the undergrowth. As soon as he was out of sight, there was a sudden snarl and the sound of Rollins screaming. Calvin screamed as well and ran, prompting whatever had found them to chase after him. Rowan used the chaos around him to grab the guy next to him and duck down into some undergrowth.

Calvin screamed again before the sound suddenly ended with a choked sound. Rowan caught a glimpse of something dark brown and maybe a touch of green. It snarled which was followed by the wet sound of flesh being ripped and then someone else screamed before they were suddenly cut off.  As quickly as it had started, it was suddenly silent. Rowan sat there for several minutes after he heard heavy footsteps fade away. He finally sent the guy with him out to check things out, figuring the guy could act as bait. Rather than sticking around Lee bolted back towards the camp. For the moment, Rowan chose to stay where he was. If the dinosaur was still around, it’d go after the runner. In theory.

Slowly, Rowan let out a sigh and hung his head as he tried to calm himself down. The surrounding jungle was still unsettlingly silent. No birds, no insects, nothing. The only sound was the occasional patter of dripping liquid. Hopefully, all of the screaming had just spooked everything. However, his thoughts came to a stuttering stop.

A hot blast of air was snorted across the back of his neck, causing his blood to run cold despite the heat of the jungle. Behind him, he heard the footfall of something heavy, then the sound of the foliage rustling above him. Oh. Fuck. Suddenly, there was movement out of the corner of his eye followed by the sinister sound of guttural clicking.

He remained there in a crouch, frozen and slowly looked out of the corner of his eye at the dinosaur. All he saw was blood-stained teeth and a blood-spattered muzzle before the head moved and a vividly green eye stared back at him. The eye examined him and the pupil’s size making minute adjustments as it moved. The skin around the eye gave a slight twitch and the eye was briefly covered by a third eyelid.

After a moment passed, the beast clicked again and tilted its head. The vivid green blushed that covers its head and faded into green stripes on the neck almost seemed to have a slight iridescentness to it. The coloration and markings were familiar to him; he’d seen low resolution images two days prior. He’d gone into the jungle expecting to find his target, but as it turned out, RH-34 had found him first.

It was all he could do to not scream.


End file.
